Guale

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Guale was a Native American chiefdom that became part of Spanish Florida's missionary system in the late 16th century. The Guale spoke a Muskogean language, unlike the many Timucuan speaking Native Americans in Spanish Florida. That the Guale spoke a Muskogean language has been questioned by the historian Sturtevant, who showed that vocabulary sources believed to be Guale were actually Creek. There are references to Guale grammar recorded in 1569 by Jesuit Brother Domingo Agustín Váez, but the documents have not been found.

The chiefdom disintegrated after the Guale Rebellion of 1597, after which the word "Guale" was generally used to refer to the missionary province of Spanish Florida where the chiefdom had been. The province of Guale was situated along the Atlantic coast and Sea Islands, north of the Altamaha River and south of the Savannah River, and including Sapelo Island, St. Catherines Island, Ossabaw Island, Wassaw Island, and Tybee Island, among others. St. Catherines Island seems to have been where the largest settlements were.

During the 17th century, war, disease, slave raids, and other factors contributed to the general collapse of Native American chiefdoms and tribes in the region, with new tribes and confederations of survivors appearing. Migrations were common, and the province of Guale saw many groups come and go, such as the Yamasee.

Between 1675 and 1680, the Westo tribe, backed by the English colonies of South Carolina and Virginia, along with attacks by English-supported pirates, destroyed the Spanish mission system in Guale. The few "refugee missions" that continued to exist in Guale were destroyed during South Carolina's 1702 invasion of Spanish Florida. Guale became too depopulated and helpless to resist the establishment of the colony of Georgia by James Oglethorpe in 1733.

A similar missionary province called Mocama (also named for a chiefdom) was situated just south of Guale, on the coast between the Altamaha River and St. Johns River. Its history is similar to Guale, and its fate the same.